Scott Oldford Site

Tag: earn a living writing

  • Hit Send: Making the Case for Following Up as a Freelance Writer

    Hit Send: Making the Case for Following Up as a Freelance Writer

    As a freelance writer, sometimes it feels like a losing battle to get work.

    You send dozens of email pitches to prospective clients but hear nothing but crickets — or at least, that’s what often happens to me.

    Recently, though, I had a mindset shift. I’m not just a writer; I’m a business owner.

    I’m selling my services. And if you’ve ever been on a company’s email list, you probably know that they follow up with a vengeance, time after time after time. Does it work? 50% of sales happen after the fifth follow-up, so that’s a yes.

    Here’s why following up on your pitches is so important for freelance writers, and the best ways to do it with success.

    Don’t be afraid to follow up

    Too many freelance writers are afraid to follow up. They think it makes them seem pushy or annoying and they’ll never get a client from a follow-up email, so why bother?

    I used to have the same fears — that is, until I started getting clients from follow-up messages.

    Think about your inbox. It’s crowded, you’re busy and sometimes things fall through the cracks. If you delete a message without reading it (and without fully realizing what it is), would you be mad if the sender emails you again a few weeks later?

    Of course not — especially not if they’re offering something of value.

    Remember, the person on the other side of the computer is just that: a person. If you follow up after an appropriate amount of time and do it with respect and kindness, they should have no problem with your email.

    Do follow up correctly

    How long should you wait before following up on a piece of marketing? Use five business days as a bare minimum; people are busy, and they don’t have time to dig their way to the bottom of their inbox each day.

    If you’re approaching or returning from a holiday, give people even more grace. And remember, life circumstances can strike at any time, making email even less of a priority.

    There’s a little controversy about how many times to follow up with any one client. I know some writers who don’t follow up at all. I know others who keep following up for years. I fall somewhere in-between.

    I used to send two follow-up emails to each prospect — one a week after my initial point of contact via LOI (letter of introduction), and one more two to three weeks after that first follow-up.

    Eventually I realized that I was getting lots of responses to the first follow-up email, but zero responses to the second. So I decided to let prospects go after just one follow-up message. And with job applications, I rarely follow up at all.

    Experiment and figure out what works for you.

    You also may want to make sure your emails are getting opened. Use a tool such as Hubspot Sales or Streak, which is a Gmail add-on, to see if your initial email was opened. If it wasn’t, you might have the wrong email address, or your message may have landed in the recipient’s spam folder. Whatever the case, you don’t want to waste your time sending emails into a black hole.

    Finally, change your mindset about following up. You’re not just asking for work — you’re cultivating a relationship. Consider sending your point of contact an article that made you think of them or wishing them a happy holiday during the appropriate times of year.

    Craft your follow-up message carefully

    A good follow-up email has three primary components:

    • A compliment to the company
    • A reminder that you’re available
    • A timely hook to bring it all together.

    For instance:

    Subject: Congrats on ABC award!

    Hi [first name],

    Congratulations on winning ABC award for XYZ initiative. That’s pretty cool — this must be such an exciting time for you!

    I wanted to reach back out and send you an article I recently had published about [relevant topic]. With your new XYZ initiative to [do something similar], I thought you might find it interesting.

    Meanwhile, I’m looking at my calendar for the next few months and was wondering if you could use any help producing content with the holiday rush coming up? I’d love to hop on a call and discuss your needs. Are you still focusing on blogging as a big part of your content marketing strategy?

    Thanks,

    [your name]

    Yes, following up really works

    But does this method really work? Yes, absolutely!

    I keep a handwritten log of all my marketing efforts — sending LOI’s to companies, applying to jobs from job boards and pitching article ideas to magazines. My log for LOI’s (it’s very basic) has four columns: company, date sent, date of follow-up and the response.

    When I flip back through my notes, one trend stands out — often, I got a response from the company after I sent a follow-up message. Sometimes they said no, sometimes they asked for clips of my work, sometimes they said to check back in a few months. And other times, I won big.

    That’s what happened when I sent an LOI to the marketing manager of a leading digital marketing agency in my state. Over a week passed and I hadn’t heard anything, so I sent her a quick note just to make sure she’d received my message.

    She responded and said she’d been on vacation and had missed my email; she was impressed with my experience and wanted to know if I could write a blog post for the agency’s website? (I could!)

    That turned into a steady stream of work equaling $1,000 a month for the next few months.

    Thanks to that freelance position, I became very well-versed in digital marketing and gained many new clips to add to my new portfolio. In that case, following up was 100% worth it — and if you begin following up with your prospects, you could win big, too.

    Photo via Nong Mars / Shutterstock 

  • From Self-Publishing to Blogging: 7 Solid Ways to Make Money Writing

    From Self-Publishing to Blogging: 7 Solid Ways to Make Money Writing

    Jane Friedman is a writing and publishing guru.

    Yes, the guru moniker is used with too much abandon these days, but Friedman’s laudable credentials, practical books and excellent website have earned her the title in my book.

    If you get nothing else from this article other than an introduction to Jane Friedman and her work, I’ve done my job.

    That said, the inspiration for this article stems from Friedman’s most recent release, The Business of Being a Writer, a fantastic primer for any writer looking to take their writing from a personal hobby to a possible business.

    Or maybe you’d just like to earn coffee money. That’s OK too.

    In the book, Friedman presents dozens of options for your consideration as you look at what you write and how you could turn that into some form of income.

    Your art and your commerce can, in fact, commingle.

    Writer, beware

    Before we dive into the major areas of making money from your writing, I have to relay one hard truth. Friedman brings it up, and my professional experience has borne it out.

    As she writes, “Very few people can make a living solely by writing and publishing books.”

    Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write and sell your books. It means that “this one pursuit should not constitute one’s entire business model.”

    And this is why you should make yourself aware of the many different ways we as writers in the 21st century can turn a buck from turning out words.

    Write your books. Sell hundreds — millions — of copies. But don’t begin your career by banking your future on that collective dream of every first-time author.

    If you want a career in writing, think wide and think long.

    As Friedman encourages us, “It remains possible to make a decent living from writing if you’re willing to pay attention to how the business works, devise a business model tailored to your goals, and adapt as needed.”

    Think wide about your writing

    If you’re at least a year or two into taking your writing seriously, you likely have a type of writing you enjoy. Maybe it’s short stories, or poetry, or freelance writing, or fiction.

    Whatever puts fire to the kindling of your writing life, keep doing that.

    By all means, leverage your writing strengths and experience. Don’t negate your gift in the pursuit of income.

    But.

    If you want to create and maintain a financial foundation for your future as a writer, you will need to think wide. In other words, you need to think beyond what you currently do as a writer. You need to continue honing your craft, but you should open your mind to the possibilities of peripheral writing and writing-related work.

    Ask yourself, “What other writing work could I do that both encourages me to write and provides compensation?”

    If nothing immediately springs to mind, let’s consider seven ways you can monetize your writing, using Business as our guide.

    Note: Business goes into further detail about each of these paths, and Friedman’s website has even more information. I’ve also listed useful articles and books to help you get started along any of these pathways.

    1. Traditional publishing

    For many authors, traditional publishing is the pinnacle achievement, the bucket-list Mt. Everest they need to climb.

    But, as Friedman writes, “Most authors will earn little, or at least nothing close to a living wage, from their books…Industry insiders estimate that 70 percent of authors do not earn out their advance.”

    Maybe don’t try to climb this mountain first.

    But if you must:

    2. Self-publishing

    Rupi Kaur. Andy Weir. E. L. James.

    You may know these names because they have all enjoyed wild success as a result of their self-published books.

    But they are the exceptions, not the rules.

    The brutal numbers of self-publishing report the real story:

    Again, write your books. Publish them yourself through Amazon self-publishing. Work on your platform and your marketing.

    Whatever you do, don’t believe the lie that anyone will “just find” your self-published book once it’s released. You cannot “just write” your book and “just hope” it will do well.

    You must apprentice yourself to the craft of writing first, to the means of self-publishing second, and to the necessity of platform and marketing third.

    Even then, you might just recoup your investment — which is a great start to your business of being a writer.

    To enjoy a sustainable living through self-publishing, you’ll need strategy and purpose, and, honestly, a good amount of luck.

    Do self-publish. Don’t only self-publish.

    Starting points:

    3. Freelance writing

    Heed Friedman’s warning when it comes to freelance writing: “It now takes considerable experience and expertise to land paying work at a traditional print publication, and I don’t recommend it as a first line of attack. New writers will do better to look to online-only publication.”

    However, pitching articles to websites is an excellent way to bolster both your experience and your expertise. In time, you might also augment your income.

    To wit: I first pitched The Write Life in late 2014 for the article that eventually became About to Respond to a Negative Review of Your Book? Read This First. I pitched my next article a few months later. I pitched a column three years later. Now readers contact me about editing because they’ve seen these articles.

    In other words, freelance writing has cross-promotional benefits to all of your other writing.

    And just think about when someone googles you: if you’ve written for dozens of known websites, you just might own the front page for your name — a definite boon for any author.

    Start here:

    4. Blogging

    Friedman writes, “It may take a very long time before you see a direct connection between your blogging and your monthly or annual income.”

    If you’re not consistently and strategically producing quality content, your blogging may not be earning the results you’re hoping for, whether that’s newsletter signups, page views, or affiliate income.

    But, if you think long and ensure there’s a method to your online madness, your blog can become a significant contributor to your bottom line.

    It’s worked for Jane Friedman, as it has for many other known entities you likely follow. After you’re introduced to their work in some way and you see how consistently they produce worthwhile content, you involuntarily begin to expect their regular content.

    In other words, you become a fan.

    And in the writing world, you need fans.

    Start here:

    5. Editing and related writing services

    As a freelance editor, I wanted to place this choice first — but I know that editors are wired differently.

    If you find yourself more engaged in your critique group when discussing what works and what doesn’t about someone else’s story, you might be a developmental editor in waiting.

    If you have a negative physical reaction to an improper your instead of you’re, you might be a copy editor.

    If you’re good at pretending to write in someone else’s voice, you might be a ghostwriter.

    All of these writing-related services are valuable and needed today, but — as seems to be the case with every point on this list — establishing yourself in any of these areas requires patience, education, and, yes, learning how to sell yourself.

    For what it’s worth, a majority of my income as a freelancer has stemmed from copyediting, developmental editing, and ghostwriting.

    Start here:

    6. Teaching

    If you have a few years of experience and the capability to form coherent sentences out loud and in public, your knowledge and insight can help other writers.

    As an introvert, I challenged myself in 2017 to increase my freelance profile by seeking speaking engagements and teaching opportunities. It was one of the best things I did for my job that year.

    Disclosure: my speaking engagements and teaching opportunities did not directly lead to increased income. But the relationships I formed with other area writers were worth far more than income. Plus, they can now refer me to people in their circles, and I can refer them.

    When you overcome your fears, you might be amazed at what kinds of doors open to you, either in the immediate future or years down the road.

    For what it’s worth: speaking and teaching seldom pay well — or at all. This is one area where I would encourage you to pursue them for the benefit of exposure.

    However, in time, as you accrue experience as a speaker or teacher, you will be able to ask for payment. Or you can channel your newfound confidence into an online class or podcast.

    Start here:

    7. Publishing career

    If you really want to go all-in and you live in or near a town or city with a publisher, literary agency, or other writing-related business, apply for a job there.

    What better way to understand the business than to be in the business.

    Jessica Strawser, the erstwhile editorial director of Writer’s Digest, comes to mind. After leaving her full-time post with the magazine after a decade, she released her first novel to critical acclaim. She’s since released two more.

    Which makes me think she probably learned a thing or two during her tenure with the magazine.

    That magazine, by the way, once employed another writer who’s now making her living from everything we’ve just discussed.

    Jane Friedman was once the publisher and editorial director of Writer’s Digest.

    I’d say she’s learned a thing or two as well — and we are all the beneficiaries.  

    This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!

    Photo via GaudiLab / Shutterstock
    nolinks
    no
    1

  • Double Your Freelance Writing Income: 5 Ways to Make it Happen

    Double Your Freelance Writing Income: 5 Ways to Make it Happen

    If you’re a working freelance writer, I’ve got a question for you: Would you like to earn twice as much money from writing as you do right now?

    (I should clarify that I mean without working twice as hard.)

    Who wouldn’t, right?

    I’ve been helping freelance writers double their income for many years now, and here’s what I’ve learned: Earning a lot more may be easier than you think.

    There are a few basic changes to how you run your writing business that reliably boost writers’ income.

    What small steps make a big difference? Here are my top five tips for quickly doubling what you earn from writing:

    1. Stop and analyze

    Many freelance writers are caught in a gerbil-wheel trap. You spend every minute frantically doing current client work and checking online job boards trying to land more gigs. You’re barely earning enough to pay bills, so there’s little free time.

    There are zero minutes spent reflecting on the big picture. Where is your writing biz headed? Who would you really love to write for, and how can you position yourself to get there?

    In the world of entrepreneurship, this is called working in your business instead of on your business. You’ll need to stop the busy-busy and take stock of your direction to make course corrections. If you’ve got even a single hour, you could reflect on what’s happening and potentially chart a new course.

    Question: When was the last time you made a list of all your clients, how much you make from them on an hourly basis — and where they came from?

    Do you see any patterns in your marketing of where better-rate clients came from? Worse ones? That may show you it’s time to stop checking online job boards, and time to do more proactive marketing, or to double down on LinkedIn networking. Or perhaps one industry niche is paying better than your others, and you should troll for more work in that area.

    Stopping to do a client analysis can help you see where you’re wasting time, which clients should be dropped, and which asked for a raise.

    2. Drop the biggest loser

    Once you know who your worst client is, lay plans to get rid of them.

    Writers often stay trapped at a low income level because they fear change. “I love writing for client X!” writers tell me, even though the gig works out to under $20 an hour. Bulletin: That client isn’t loving you back.

    Somewhere in your client list, there’s probably a client that should be cut loose, to free up marketing time to find better prospects.

    Use the time you save to find a better client. Once you do, drop the next-biggest loser. And so on. This simple process of swapping out lower-paid clients for better ones is the main technique I used to build my own business to six figures — right in the middle of the last big economic downturn.

    3. Create (or strengthen) your inbound funnel

    Are great clients finding you online? Whether it’s from a LinkedIn profile or your own writer website, a thriving writing business gets inbound clients who see your work and contact you. You should wake up in the morning and find emails, InMails, or Messenger notes from good prospects.

    If that isn’t happening for you, it’s time to build or improve your online presence. I’m currently teaching a bootcamp for new freelance writers, and I’m blown away by how many have fewer than 100 LinkedIn connections. Give the Internet a chance to help you find clients on autopilot!

    Consider making network-building and site improvement a weekly goal – it can pay off in less active marketing you have to do. And we all want that, right?

    If you’ve got a writer website but it’s never gotten you a client, it’s time to optimize it. Have you given SEO any thought, and are you getting found for the keyword phrase you’re targeting? It can be worth investing a little time to make sure you come off professional, and it’s clear what type of clients you want.

    Remember, most clients are searching for someone who knows their thing. They’re Googling for an Atlanta healthcare writer, or a freelance cryptocurrency writer. Something like that. Be sure to think like a client and communicate your expertise.

    4. Identify ideal clients

    If your marketing is all over the place, it’s time to focus. One of the best ways to do that is with an ideal-client exercise. Here’s how:

    Close your eyes and imagine your ideal freelance writing life. Who are you writing for? Is it Vanity Fair? IBM? Think big and make a list of at least 10 dream clients.

    Next, ask yourself this: What clips would impress those clients? Who would be a good stepping stone down the yellow brick road to that Emerald City?

    For instance, if you want to write for Forbes, you might pitch a piece to your city’s business magazine or weekly business journal, to start. Aligning current prospects with ideal clients helps you quickly assemble a portfolio that’ll impress the right people.

    Stop taking any and all gigs that come your way, and writing about everything under the sun. Instead, build a path that leads directly to your best writing jobs.

    Sometimes, this exercise will even lead you to realize you should pitch dream clients right away! I’ve seen writers pitch and get hired immediately by dream clients, once they did the ideal-client exercise and realized they had the portfolio to go for it.

    5. Raise your rates

    There’s a bottom line that if you want to earn more, you have to charge more.

    Start figuring out how you’ll do it. Hint: You’ll need to target clients that have real money and understand our value — bigger-circulation magazines, larger business and websites. Generally, these gigs aren’t sitting around an online job board.

    Make sure you know what you’re earning on an hourly basis (even if you charge project rates, like you should)…and keep inching that figure up.

    If you don’t have the stomach to ask existing clients for a raise, be sure to bring in new ones at higher rates. If you’re not raising rates, you’re not keeping up with the rising cost of living.

    I speak as someone who’s paying $7,000 for braces on kid #2 right now, that cost $5,000 with kid #1, about 5 years ago. The price of everything else is going up, and raising rates shows you’re professional and value your worth.

    Once you’ve done the client-analysis process and realigned your actions to suit your goals, make a date with yourself to repeat it every six months- one year. Your client base will change, as will your best actions to grow your income.

    We don’t tend to hit new earning levels without a goal. Set yours high and even if you fall short, you’ll be earning way more than you did before.

    This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!

    Photo via Monster Ztudio / Shutterstock 

  • 5 Romantic Ways to Earn a Living as a Writer

    5 Romantic Ways to Earn a Living as a Writer

    Maybe you’re the type who welcomes Valentine’s Day with open arms — and a slew of candy hearts for good measure. Or maybe you’d rather ignore Cupid’s birthday entirely, rebranding the event S.A.D. (Singles Awareness Day, that is).

    But whether you struggle with or celebrate this annual festival of fondness, one thing’s for sure: making money as a writer can be just as trying as navigating a romantic relationship…and just as blissful when the stars align.

    In honor of the season of love, we’ve put together a few fun ideas for earning cash as a writer, even — or maybe especially — if you’re a little love-sick. (In either sense of the term.)

    Below, find five dreamy ways to win a wage for your words.

    1. Help the lonely find love as a professional dating profile writer

    Just as we do for delivery meals and taxi rides, many of us turn to the wide world of the internet when we’re in search of Mr. or Ms. Right. (Or even Mr. or Ms. Right Now.)

    But crafting a well-written online dating profile can be a serious obstacle for those who aren’t linguistically inclined.

    Which is why “professional online dating profile writer” is now a real job title — and a uniquely 21st-century way to make money writing copy. You could offer up your services freelance on a platform like Fiverr or try to find a gig with a firm focused on this kind of content.

    You might also just reach out to the singles you know in person and ask if they’d like to give their OKCupid “About Me” section a bit of a professional spit-shine. Besides, most online dating profiles would probably be more objective (yet still attractive!) if they were written by a third party.

    2. Bring others’ romantic sentiments to life by writing greeting cards

    How many lovestruck — or lovelorn — people turn to the staid stanzas of a pre-written greeting card when attempting to express their emotions?

    You can use your way with words to help a stranger say what they really feel by writing those heartfelt, if generalized, sentiments.

    There are many large greeting card manufacturers who hire full-time writers and offer internships to those who are still studying. That’s how poet and short-story author Keion Jackson ended up as a senior writer at Hallmark Cards. You can also write for major card companies on a freelance basis, earning a flat fee for each accepted submission.

    And thanks to DIY sales platforms like Etsy, you could even strike out on your own, writing and selling artisanal greeting cards of your own creation — though in this case, it’ll probably help if you’re as crafty as you are literary.

    3. Find work as a freelance romance writer

    Yes, it’s true: finding any work as a freelance writer is already complicated. But it’s also true that you can get paid to write romantic fiction on a per-word basis.

    Check out, for example, this listing from Radish Fiction, calling for freelancers who are “interested in the romance genre and serialized storytelling.” At $50 per 1500 words, the pay isn’t exactly stellar… but it is paid!

    Romance writers are also sometimes in demand on freelance platforms like Upwork. This listing offers between 3 and 6 cents per word for “high quality romance writer[s],” and you’ll be provided an outline. Again, not exactly bread-on-the-table money, but a fun way to bring in a little bit extra!

    Whether you’re a hopeless romantic or a perpetual cynic, the season of love can be lucrative for a freelance writer.

    4. Or pitch and pen your own piece about love

    If you’ve got your own heartwarming (or heartrending) story to tell, you might be able to make significantly more than a few cents per word to tell it. You can earn a more substantial chunk of change, not to mention exposure and name recognition, if you successfully pitch your story to one of these literary outlets, which pay quite well for personal essays.

    Just be sure your piece fits your prospective publisher’s submission guidelines, and ideally relates to any recent pitch calls the editors have made.

    Keep in mind that editorial calendars tend to run several months ahead of publication, so you’ll probably want to reach out by December at the latest with a story you think would work well in February.

    5. Feeling feisty? Self-publish your steamy fiction

    Find yourself weaving wandering tales of courtship — or even out-and-out smut? No need to be embarrassed. In fact, you may be sitting on some serious earnings potential.

    There’s a huge market for romance novels, which accounted for about 15% of adult fiction purchases in 2017, easily beating fantasy and sci-fi combined. And thanks to the accessibility of self-publishing, you don’t necessarily need to do the time-intensive footwork of finding an open-minded agent.

    Looking for even more ways to earn cash as a writer? Check out these online gold mines for finding paid gigs, or this guide to getting your start as a freelancer.  

    Whether you’ll spend February 14th smiling in pink or scowling in black, we wish you the best of luck — both in love and in lucrative writing!

  • 4 Smart Tips to Help Take Your Freelance-Writing Career Full Time

    4 Smart Tips to Help Take Your Freelance-Writing Career Full Time

    Before I became serious about freelance writing, I was freshly out of school and still held the mashup of part-time jobs I’d stitched together to make ends meet work while I “figured things out.”

    Sure, I was looking for a full-time job, probably as a technical writer, because what else do MFAs do? But I wasn’t in any hurry to accept a job that would barely pay more than the three part-time gigs I had going on, and maybe part of me was terrified at the thought of getting pigeon-holed into a tech writing career.

    Then, my boyfriend had a horrible accident at work, leaving him in the hospital for five days and out of work for months afterward. To say we were struggling to make ends meet would be understated. Out of necessity, I started looking for freelance writing work.

    I landed my first few clients through Upwork, which, although it has its downfalls, is a great place to start looking for work as a freelancer.

    Slowly, one project turned into another, and then another, and before I knew it, I had a fourth part-time job and a big decision to make.

    Here are some of the tips I picked up along the way that helped me finally make the decision to become a full-time writer.

    1. Build a strategic client base

    As you begin to take on more and more freelancing gigs, don’t fall into the trap of sacrificing quality for quantity.

    While you may feel like you need to frantically acquire new clients in the beginning, it can be helpful in the long-run to hold out for clients who are looking to form a long-term working relationship with a freelancer. That way, you can build more stability as you invest your time in repeat clients rather than trying to juggle a string of one-time clients here and there.

    Of course, this can take some time. For me, the mismatched string of clients eventually lead to finding a few diamonds in the rough, but once you dig up these long-term clients, hang onto them.

    2. Don’t be afraid to take an unexpected path

    When you first set out to freelance, you probably have at least a basic idea of the services you can offer, whether that’s copy editing, content marketing, or digital marketing. But just because you had some success doing line edits for your first handful of clients doesn’t mean that’s the only line of work you should consider. Go ahead, accept the invitation to try a website rewrite or SEO writing, even if you’re not quite sure you want those types of projects.

    My first few clients were new authors looking for someone to copy edit their fiction novels. Now, I generate web content for plastic surgeons and dermatologists.

    It’s a far cry from anything my former self would have guessed I’d be doing, but had I not popped my head out of the editing door, I would have never discovered the entire basis for my freelance business.

    3. Want in? Just ask

    If you come across a potential client who you think could benefit from your freelancing service, shoot a friendly email their way.

    When cold pitching, you want to first explain who you are, what specific experience you have, and how you think your skillset could benefit their business.

    Make sure you back this up by demonstrating an understanding of their company and its unique needs. Then, end with an invitation for a phone call or video chat to discuss their needs and your services in more detail. The worst that could happen is that they tell you “no thanks,” but at best, you land a great client.

    4. Be real about your budget

    One of the last obstacles that kept me holding onto my office job was the fact that taxes were already taken out of my paycheck.

    Saving enough money to (maybe) pay the right amount each quarter can seem like an impossibly daunting task, but don’t let this stop you. Get tax advice from a professional who has experience working with freelancers, and don’t be afraid to pay for them to help you file.

    Then, draft a realistic budget for yourself based solely on your income from freelancing. Include your quarterly tax payments, accounting for the fact that some months might be more or less fruitful than others, and resist the urge, however great, to “fudge” numbers in your favor.

    Once your budget reflects a comfortable financial life without your day job, congratulations! It maybe time to put your two-weeks in.

    Make the switch to full-time freelancer

    If I’m honest, there are still times when I can’t quite believe I really did it.

    But all in all, deciding to leave my office job and write full-time has been one of the most rewarding, albeit challenging, things I’ve ever done.

    There were so many times along the way when I felt run-down, drained and downright exhausted from trying to balance so many responsibilities at once. But until my spreadsheet sang financial stability, I held out.

    There’s no doubt that breaking into freelancing can be a bit of a challenge at first, not to mention making the leap from a side gig to a career.

    But if you’re honest with yourself about your goals and how you can realistically accomplish them, becoming a full-time freelance writer really isn’t far out of reach at all.

    This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!